Terry Gross of NPR’s Fresh Air has a great interview with New York Times correspondent John Burns, who was in Iraq when Saddam released his prisoners. He’s won two Pulitzer prizes and comes across as a journalist’s journalist. I highly recommend this interview, especially for Burns’ recounting of his interview with Palestinian Liberation Front leader …

Just before the U.N. voted on a final shot at disarming Iraq, the leader of the Turkish Justice and Development Party (AKP), Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said Turkey would not help in an attack on neighboring Iraq.

The U.N. Security Council has unanimously passed the U.S. resolution on Iraq today. Iraq has called the resolution cover for a U.S. attack.
“The objective of any draft resolution will not be to verify the situation about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction but to provide some causes for the United States to attack Iraq,” [Trade Minister Mohammad] Saleh told reporters asking about Iraq’s position on the resolution. “It is unfortunate that America and Britain have obstructed the return of U.N. weapons inspectors except with a new U.N. resolution that leads to a military aggression on Iraq under international cover.”

Further evidence of impending fireworks in the Gulf, three massive military ships left U.S. ports this weekend. “It is part of the repositioning of forces and equipment in support of the war on terror. They are on route,” [Marge Holtz, director of the Military Sealift Command (MSC), a branch of the U.S. Navy charged with …